a decade ago. >> it's nice to exploit their weakness which is their ego. >>plus,nancypelosidecidingto go for another term as democratic leader. her big announcement didn't go exactly as planned. >> said yesterday we did not have the majority but we have the gavel. excuse me. we don't have the gavel. >> we were hoping to. we have our own gavel. hammer. >> we have something more important. we have unity. >> and they certainly have woman power in that photo op. andrea mitchell live in new york. within the hour, president obama will be holding his first news conference in eight months. the first since his re-election. reporters are likely going to be asking about a lot more than the fiscal cliff, as important as that is, be now that the president's national security team is coping with an expanding scandal. congress drilling down on the investigation into benghazi. joining me from the white house, chuck todd, chief white house correspondent, be host of "the daily run down request" and enjoying a front row seat. >> as you point out the hoping statement will be about the fiscal cliff. th

,congresswomannancypelosiisholding a news conference saying she wants to remain democratic leader in the house and aides said she made the announcement just a short time ago while talking with her caucus. let's listen. [ applause ] >> millions of women's votes that it took to re-elect president barack obama. [ applause ] >> yes. >> millions of women's votes who helped us elect a record number of women to the congress of the united states. as you look forward, understand that you are looking into the future. the future of empower. of women in america. you saw some of these faces yesterday among the new members-elect. i said then that they were part of the most diverse caucus in the history of the world, the first time their parliamentary body would have a party who had a majority of women and minorities. as its strength and we're very, very proud of that. i said yesterday we did not have the majority but we have the gav gavel. excuse me. we don't have the gavel. we don't have -- we have our own gavel. we have something more important. we have unity. we do not have the gavel, we do

's a mandate here? >> i don't. because then they would haveputnancypelosiincharge of the house of representatives. see, i think these ideas that we talked about, i think they're popular ideas. this is a very close election. >> despite a scoreboard of 332 to 206, congressman paul ryan refuses to admit that president obama might have a mandate to push his agenda, a big part of which includes raising taxes on high earners. this week the president is holding court with ally and opponents to discuss the upcoming fiscal cliff. yesterday, at a meeting with progressive leaders the president said he would not give in to republican demands to extend all of the bush tax cuts. today he will meet with business leaders. the discussions underscore the president's opposing constituencies, but according to new york magazine's jonathan chaits the president has to do what he want -- joining us now from washington, "new york" magazine columnist by god jonathan chait. hello, my friend. >> thank you. >> jonathan, so the president met with progressive leaders yesterday and i think gave them some welc

us about the future of house minorityleadernancypelosibecauseshe's made some comments this morning, i believe. >> she is planning to tell all of us what her future is tomorrow morning. nan nancy pelosi has been the leader of democrats in the house. she was the first woman speaker, and there was some questions of whether she would stay on in a leadership position in the new congress because she had not been able to win as many democratic seats as they had hoped even though she raised a lot of money and did a lot of work for candidates. so that question was there, should the democrats have a new leader? perhaps steny hower, perhaps jim clyburn, what we don't know is what her final decision is. tonight there's a whole series of meetings and get-togethers as members come back and she will make it known tomorrow. that's something to stay tuned for. >> any hint of what she's going to say? >> i would say her posture coming back, she certainly looks confident and engaged. that might lead me to think she wants to stay in power, but we don't know for certain. >> absolutely. nbc'